Also 5 speder, -ar. [f. SPEED v.]
1. One who speeds, aids or furthers; a helper or forwarder. Now arch.
c. 1400. Laud Troy Bk., 4798. He made him lord and her leder, And prayed god be her speder.
c. 1440. York Myst., i. 110. To spill vs þu was oure spedar.
1616. Chapman, Homer’s Hymn Hermes, 52. Speeder of Nights spies And guide of all her dreames obscurities.
1859. G. Meredith, R. Feverel, xxxviii. I ain’t a speeder of matrimony, and good’s my reason!
1887. Morris, Odyss., XIII. 41. For now are all things ready…, The speeders and gifts of well-wishers.
† 2. One who prospers or succeeds, esp. in a suit.
1580. Lyly, Euphues (Arb.), 405. Your wooers [will be] good old Gentlemen before they be speeders.
1592. Greene, Philomela, Wks. (Grosart), XI. 155. He that is a sutor in Ieast, maye be a speeder in earnest.
1611. Cotgr., s.v. Perdeur, The miserable pleader is a miserable speeder; the sparing of a fee is often the spoyle of a cause.
1671. H. M., trans. Erasm. Colloq., 32. Go thy way advocate, thou wilt come back again a speeder.
transf. 1611. Chapman, Widdowes T., Wks. 1873, III. 7. My former suites have been all spenders, this shall be a speeder.
3. A device or contrivance for quickening or regulating the speed of machinery; also, a kind of roving-machine used in cotton-manufacture.
1875. Knight, Dict. Mech., 2261/1. The twist, which is given in the bobbin and fly frame by the rotation of the spindle and flyer, is given in the speeder by an endless belt.
4. One who cycles, motors, etc., at a high rate of speed; a fast car, horse, etc.
1891. in Cent. Dict.
1893. Columbus (Ohio) Disp., 6 Sept. A certain good-fellowship has been established between the speeders and the city.
